Vscode-docs: global search: backreferences are not supported

[xiaoqianghaochi]

global search: backreferences are not supported；
eg: (\w.+):\ \1

[gregvanl]

Hi @xiaoqianghaochi Yes, this is true that backreferences are not supported by default but you can try the search.usePCRE2 setting to use the PCRE2 regex engine.

https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_29#_backreferences-and-lookahead-in-search

If you have issues or suggestions, you can enter them in the VS Code product repo at https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues.

[frnk94]

@gregvanl
Hello ! I ran into this issue so I added the following config to my settings.json:

{
  "search.usePCRE2": true,
}

Adding this line result in my editor telling me this message:

Deprecated. PCRE2 will be used automatically when using regex features that are only supported by PCRE2.

I don't mind the warning but I just wanted to point out that the warning is actually not true because if the setting is not there my editor wont fallback to PCRE2 and instead I will have this error message:

backreferences are not supported

[gregvanl]

@frnk94 Thanks for reporting this. We'll try to get this sorted out.

[JoeyRxy]

I got this error, too. I find you can use backreference in single file searching, but not in global searching. Why? I remember there have been a setting to use pcre2, then WHY YOU CANCEL IT? I really confused why people will destroy the advantages of their product?

[frnk94]

@JoeyRxy I think they tried to make a default fallback to PCRE2 but just didn't cover global searching look like a bug and not them removing features. Instead of commenting negatively on a free Open source project why not contributing.

[mightyiam]

Please re-open?

[roblourens]

This is fixed in Insiders

[gregvanl]

You can download the Insiders builds from https://code.visualstudio.com/insiders to try it out.

[mightyiam]

Thank you so much. Keep up the excellent work.